by Roxie Ray
“We will deal with that mystery when we are away from here,” Ronan said, a little coolly. Every word Ronan had spoken so far had been calm, serene, even warm…but now that we were actually discussing staying here, it made sense that he wasn’t so keen on the idea. Pax and Ora were thick as thieves now, and Gallix and I…obviously had something. But when Marisa had tried her luck with Ronan, he’d brushed her off entirely. Maybe with time…
But Marisa was still missing, and unless she fixed her attitude, I couldn’t imagine her and Ronan being a very good pairing anyway.
If we stayed here, Ronan would be without a mate.
“It just isn’t fair.” Ora lowered her eyes to the ground. She was blushing pink and leaning heavily against Pax.
“Few things in life are,” Ronan said simply. “I need to locate Marisa. You all must remain here. If the Rutharians come upon this place—”
“Meet at the cave?” Gallix suggested.
Ronan sighed, then nodded. “We do not have much here in terms of waypoints yet. Yes. The cave will suffice—for now.”
As Ronan headed into the jungle with his blaster drawn, Pax and Ora disappeared down the hall toward the rooms. I had three guesses as to what they were up to, and none of them involved much clothing.
“Why don’t we check out the canteen?” Gallix suggested, watching them go. “Maybe there’s some stuff in there we can scavenge. Neither of us got breakfast, and if we can’t light a fire, we’re going to have to find another source of grub.”
At the mere mention of food, my stomach rumbled greedily. After so many hungry nights in Sector Five, it was used to going without food, but my mouth was already watering at the memory of the fish Gallix had cooked last night.
“Good plan,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”
In the canteen, we were able to salvage a few dozen foil packages of “rations,” as Gallix called them. When he cut one open with his knife and squeezed its contents into my mouth, I cringed and drew back. The taste was…interesting. The texture was worse.
“What is this? Space goo?”
Gallix checked the package. “It’s mashed yuava root—so, essentially, yes.”
Aside from the space goo, the supplies that were still good in the canteen were few and far between. A couple of spices, some protein blocks, a number of battered kitchen items, and that was it. The eggs had all broken when we crashed, and the meat in the fridge was burned to a crisp.
“You can still eat it, I s’pose,” Gallix grumbled as he pulled a rock-hard steak out and banged it against the countertop.
“Even we humans have our limits, Gallix. Let’s get some water and gather up the rest of the fruit that Ora and Pax picked yesterday. It’s not much, but it should get us by for a little while, right?”
“What do you think of that? Ora and Pax, ah…” Gallix made some rude gestures with his hips and I laughed.
“I mean, they’ve obviously liked each other from the start of this. And I’ve never seen Ora so happy, so…” I shrugged as I stooped to pick up some of Ora’s bright pink fruits. “I guess we should have seen it coming.”
“You, ah, you reckon you and I… I mean, after last night…” Gallix’s fingers brushed against mine as we reached for the same fruit at the same time. My body flushed with warmth at just that small, simple point of contact before he pulled away. “Not that we’d have to, you know. Do that—”
“Do what? Make love?”
“Moons, Eve. Don’t call it that.”
“What should I call it, then?” My heart raced at this new topic of conversation. “Mating? Is that better?”
“Let’s not call it anything for now.” Gallix made a small, low growl and turned away from me to fetch fruit that was further away. But I was pretty sure I heard him add, beneath his breath, “Before my trousers get too tight for me to walk in. Nine moons. Nine hells! Blood.”
Without the fire, the night grew even colder than last. I sat in the open cavern of the ship, shivering and watching the tree line for Ronan to return. I hoped that he would come back with Marisa in his arms and Rutharian blood on his face. It would let us all know that the danger had passed, and we were free to warm up next to a few crackling logs again, or at least go for another swim… but he didn’t come back.
It was long past dark, and still, Ronan didn’t come back at all.
“Cold?” Gallix emerged from the hall behind me and placed something around my shoulders. It was heavy, and reeked of smoke—but more importantly, it was warm. In my thin little nightgown, I’d braved thick sands, a trek through the jungle, and now bone-chilling temperatures today. When I glanced down to see Gallix’s white military jacket wrapped around me, I pulled it tight around me and practically purred.
“I can’t believe how freezing it gets here at night.” I glanced over at him as he sat down by my side. “Or that your jacket survived the fire, for that matter.”
“Ah, it’s been through worse.”
“But aren’t you cold?” His shirt was still in tatters and caked with blood where the beast had clawed him earlier. It looked incredibly thin, and Gallix’s thick, muscled biceps were bare beneath the sleeves.
“I’ve been through worse too. But now that you mention it…” He put his arm around me and pulled me close. “There. We can huddle together for warmth.”
“For warmth. Right.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What? Something wrong?” Gallix looked deeply confused—too confused to be real.
“I mean…really?” I met his eyes and searched them for the truth. “You’re not really going to pretend that you’re doing this just for warmth. I might be a virgin, Gallix, but I’m not a dumb virgin.”
“And I’m not calling you one.” Gallix wrapped me up a little tighter beneath his arm. “Look. It’s a cold night, and I’m a warm body. If it just so happens that this warm body is drawn to yours…well.”
“Well?”
“You were there the last time we were alone like this.” Gallix chuckled. “Can’t blame a soldier for looking for a rematch, can you?”
“I didn’t realize we were fighting.”
“No. Not fighting.” Gallix place his hand on the side of my cheek and turned my face towards his. “Not unless that’s what you’re into, I s’pose.”
“I’m not,” I said firmly. The fact that I even had to verbalize that seemed…insane. But then again, there was no telling what kind of warrior women Gallix had shared his bed with before me. “Are you?”
“Nah. Not really my style. I do enough fighting on the battlefield. Don’t need it off of it, too.”
“Then…what is this?” It was a question that had been weighing on my mind ever since last night in the pool. “Because I don’t know how, ah…how these things work on Lunaria. But on Earth…”
“We’re not on Earth anymore.”
“On Earth, things are pretty…traditional. One woman for one man.”
“I’m no man.”
“Your cock says otherwise,” I pointed out. “You’re a man to me. So, what am I to you?”
Gallix smiled, like he relished the opportunity to answer that question. “Beautiful,” he said without hesitation. “Desirable. When I saw my chance with you last night, I took it. Couldn’t tell myself no. Was that wrong?”
“No,” I admitted. “I couldn’t tell myself no either.”
“You know, on Lunaria… well, before the population crisis, males, females…you saw the paintings in the caves here. They chose each other willingly. By scent and by desire.” Gallix looked deep into my eyes. “When I first saw you, I wanted you. Simple as that, Eve. I saw you, I wanted you…and when I got the sense that you wanted me too, I took you. Seemed like you enjoyed it too, for that matter.”
“I did.” My voice was a low whisper now. “I really did.”
“And if I wanted to take you again?” He moved his fingertips from my cheek to my lips.
“I’m a virgin, Gallix,” I reminded him. “And if I don’t arriv
e in Lunaria a virgin…”
“We’ll deal with that when it comes to it.” Gallix purred as he leaned into my lips. “You want me?”
“I…” I sighed and bowed my head slightly. “I do. But—”
“Then let’s have each other.” Gallix moved my face so I had no choice but to look at him. His noble nose, his gorgeous cheekbones, his tantalizing lips… and his eyes. Deep, dark blue. “I want you, Eve—and you want me too.”
“I do,” I insisted again. “But it’s not the same. You’re not—”
“What? A virgin too?” Gallix laughed. “I lived my whole life believing that I’d never have a female to call my own. No wife on Lunaria—there were no wives to be had. No mate. Not a true one. No anything. You want me to take the females I had before you back? Because if I can, I will.”
“I don’t—”
“Eve. If I had known that you existed, that this was even possible…I would’ve never so much looked as another female.” Gallix smirked as he turned away, but there was pain behind his smile. “Even if you tell me no tonight. Even if you choose someone else, whatever lord may or may not be awaiting you on Lunaria over me…I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to look at another female again.”
“Even me?” I asked, suddenly breathless.
“Wouldn’t be right to, but…” Gallix let out a tense breath. “Nah. Looking at you is like staring at a sun, Eve. Even when I know it’ll blind me… I can’t ever help but look at you.”
I kissed him without meaning to. My body moved without my command, without even my permission.
Maybe I was stupid for doing it, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I kissed him, and even if I didn’t mean to, my body did.
Our clothes came off in the same way. I didn’t know who was undressing who. I didn’t know how they came off, and only had a faint idea of why…but they did. Gallix’s shirt and trousers, torn off and abandoned by the fire. My nightgown, ripped down the front and tossed away like it meant nothing at all. My body ached to be close to Gallix. No barriers. Nothing to stop us. Just skin on skin.
“You want this?” Gallix asked. His hand hovered over my breast, tense like it was taking every ounce of his strength to keep from claiming it. “You’re sure?”
“Stop asking me that.” I pressed my breast into his hand and my body against his. “I want you. I’m sure.”
Our lips clashed in a mad scramble. I couldn’t keep my hands off of him, and his hands were all over me in return. He stroked down my back so softly, I wanted to purr. But when his hand came to my ass, he grabbed me possessively and purring was suddenly the last thing on my mind.
I wanted to scream. Growl, like the beasts in the jungle he had saved me from. I wanted to bite those perfect mounds of muscle where his shoulders connected to his neck and make him growl back at me. Make him.
I wanted him to be mine.
I wanted to be his.
“Ride me,” Gallix ordered. His fingers slipped between the lips of my cunt. When he pulled them away, my honey clung between his fingertips. “You’re wet, bright eyes, but you should still be on top.”
“Why?” I straddled him even as I asked the question.
“Because I want you to be in control of how much of my cock you take, and how fast.” Gallix gripped his cock in his fist and positioned it between my thighs. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but…I’m quite large.”
“I’ve noticed.” Even just the thickness of his tip between the lips of my pussy was almost unfathomable. “Believe me. It’s pretty hard to miss.”
“Don’t want to hurt you.” Gallix smoothed his hands down my thighs, then back up them. His fingers curled around my hips and squeezed. “And since this is your first time—”
“I don’t know how,” I reminded him. “Are you sure?”
“Close your eyes then, vringna. Let your body feel the way.”
“I don’t want to close my eyes,” I told him. “I don’t want to miss a single minute of this.”
Gallix smiled—not like a scoundrel, or a bastard, or like I was some kind of joke to him.
He smiled up at me like I was the sunrise after a long, terrible night.
Just like he said. He smiled at me like I was the sun.
“Then keep your eyes on mine.” He moved my hips forward slightly, tilting them to a better angle. “If it hurts, we can stop.”
“I don’t want to stop.” This closeness to him, his hands on my body, his eyes on mine… I never wanted this to stop.
“Just take it slow. Dunno if you’ve noticed, vringna, but we’ve got all the time in the world.”
I pressed my hands to his chest and braced myself against him. When I slid my cunt back and forth against the tip of Gallix’s cock, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was wet.
“You’re slick too.” Just like he’d been against my stomach in the pool the other night.
“Precum,” Gallix said with a chuckle. “Means I want you, Eve.”
“Mm.” I hummed with pleasure at those words. I want you, Eve. “I want you, too.”
I lowered myself on his cock. He was big enough that he didn’t enter me right away. But he was stiff enough, it didn’t matter. His cock pressed into me, squeezing into the tightness of my entrance, and I gasped as I felt something snap within me.
“Aah!” I cried out, half in surprise, half in pain. It wracked my entire body, coursing through me in the same way the first orgasm had last night.
“Shh.” Gallix placed his hand behind my head and pressed down until my lips were against his. He kissed me, long and deep until the pain subsided. “You’re all right, Eve. You’re all right.”
“I’m…all right.” I was shaking, but it wasn’t a lie. I could feel the flat, wide tip of Gallix’s cock stretching me out and something hot and wet trickling down his shaft, but the pain wasn’t so bad now that the initial moment was over.
“You sure? You want to stop?”
“No.” I clenched my jaw and slipped down him a few inches further. “No, I don’t.”
Moment by moment, inch by inch, I took Gallix inside me. It was almost strange, being so in control…but it was nice, too.
I had to learn my limits, my boundaries. I had to listen to my body and feel how much of him I could take.
“Moons, you’re adorable.” Gallix’s breathing was heavy, but his smile remained. “Never seen a female take my cock like this before.”
“Am I doing something wrong?” I asked, suddenly worried. “I don’t want to be adorable. I want to be…sexy.”
Gallix laughed. “No. Blood, Eve. Not at all. It’s very sexy. Just…in the sweetest, most innocent way.”
I felt Gallix’s cock throb inside me, and knew it was true. My cuteness was sexy to him.
I could work with that. Honestly, now that he was inside me, I was beginning to feel so good that I didn’t want to do anything else.
“Start slow.” Gallix guided my hip with one hand and let his other slide up to my waist, then to my breast. He squeezed it gently, then ran his thumb in little circles around my nipple until it grew stiff beneath his touch. “Don’t take more than you’re able.”
“But I want all of it,” I said with a little laugh. My pussy throbbed around him, clenching like it was desperate to take more. “I want every inch.”
“Take it then.” Gallix pulled my lips down to his again. His kiss made any lingering pain disappear as soon as his tongue slipped against mine.
And I did. Slowly at first, just like he said, but then faster. Harder. More. More. More. I was in control of my movements, the depth. Maybe more in control than I’d ever been in my life. But every time Gallix moaned, I felt a little less in control. A little less in command of my body. Tenderness gave way to desire so quickly, I didn’t even catch myself when it finally happened.
I cried out as I rode Gallix’s cock hard and fast. I didn’t feel innocent anymore. I felt like a woman.
So in control of what I wanted,
and simultaneously, so, so out of control that when my first orgasm hit me, I had to stop just to manage how intensely it made my body shake.
“Blood,” Gallix swore as he stared up at me. Like I was sacred. Holy. Like I was the only woman in the entire universe. “Blood, Eve. Just…moons. Blood.”
For a moment, we were both frozen as I floated on each heady, ecstatic wave of pleasure.
In the next moment, Gallix rolled our bodies so he was on top of me—and then, I wasn’t in control of anything at all anymore.
He thrust his hips against mine, forceful but slow. Every time he entered me, I gasped and bucked as light and heat unfurled through my body. Every time he withdrew, I was left whimpering for more. The way he stared down at me, it was like he wanted to take me gently—but the way his cock was sliding in and out of me, faster with every passing minute, it was like he couldn’t even be gentle when he was trying to be. He was out of control now, too.
I liked that.
I liked that so much, I clung to him desperately, eager for more.
“Gallix,” I pleaded against his lips in between kisses. “I’m close. I’m so close.”
“Come for me then, Eve.” Gallix’s voice was harsh and rough, but his deep eyes were full of something incredibly gentle. Something like love. “Just like last time. Let me feel this perfect cunt of yours spasm around me.”
“Come with me,” I begged. “Please, Gallix. Come inside me.”
“Aw, nine hells.” Gallix panted. His eyes widened for a moment, like he knew what I was asking of him was a bad idea.
And of course, it was. I wasn’t like the other women he’d been with. The only reason I was here with him at all was because I was fertile. Breedable. Compatible with Lunarians for mating. If we were sane, we wouldn’t have been doing this at all.
But I didn’t feel sane. Not in that moment.